SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA OCH EU:S KRISER – EN EUROSKEPTISK RESA? En idé- och argumentationsanalys av Sverigedemokraternas inställning till EU och europeiska krisers påverkan.

Abstract

The Sweden Democrats is currently the only radical right political party in the Swedish parliament. The party expresses euroscepticism, but in 2019 changed from wanting to leave the EU, instead opting to reform it. The party therefore deviates slightly from how similar parties regard the EU. Since the party entered the Swedish and European parliaments, several crises have occurred in the EU. No prior research has been done on how these crises have impacted the party’s eurosceptic views, which this thesis means to answer. The thesis also means to answer how the eurosceptic views of the party has evolved over time, and how similar these views are to how previous research finds that parties of their character view the EU. To answer this, the thesis utilises theoretical framework based upon previous research. Party documents from the party and parliamentary debates are used as this thesis empirical evidence. The results find that the Swedish Democrats eurosceptic characteristics has remained the same since their parliamentary debut, as well as the party’s political rhetoric being similar to that used of other parties of the same kind. European crises have been found not to have a profound effect on the party’s eurosceptic views.